A typically elegant, clipped on-drive for four off Corey Collymore took Mohammad Yousuf from 44 to 48 on the fourth day of the final Test between Pakistan and West Indies at Karachi. A modest raise of the bat acknowledged that the drive also took him past one of the longest-standing records in cricket, of most runs in a calendar year.
Sir Viv Richards's had scored 1710 runs in 1976, a memorable run during which he scored two double-hundreds against England in England and the closest anyone had come to it since was Ricky Ponting in 2005, with 1544 runs.
Yousuf began his run with two hundreds in the home series against India. He only played a solitary Test in Sri Lanka, personally an unmemorable one, but a double-century at Lord's sparked off a stunning second half of the year.
Two more hundreds came from the remaining three Tests in England, including a 192 at Headingley. He ended the year with three hundreds in as many Tests against the West Indies at home.
During the course of this magnificent run, a few more records fell. His first-innings hundred at Karachi meant that he had scored eight Test hundreds this year alone, going past the previous best of seven, held jointly by Richards and Aravinda de Silva. By scoring five hundreds in five consecutive Tests, he also became only the third man, along with Jacques Kallis and Sir Don Bradman (six hundreds in six Tests) to do so.
And just before he went past Richards tally, he had glided past Zaheer Abbas's record for the most runs made by a Pakistani batsman in a three-Test series. Abbas had made 583 runs against the visiting Indians in 1978-79.

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Bob Woolmer
It is a marvellous achievement. I have had the honour of playing against Viv Richards and coaching Yousuf. Both are very different in their styles, Viv was a lot more aggressive and Yousuf more sedate but to break Viv's record is really an outstanding achievement.

Sanjay Manjrekar
The most striking thing about Yousuf at the moment is that it is as if he is batting in a trance. He is so calm at the crease and that mental change is the most striking change from last year. You know people will say that he played on flat tracks, against weak attacks at times but that is neither here nor there. He still had to break a big record and he has done it. What's good to see, apart from the calm demeanour, is that he is, like all good batsmen, cashing in on good form and making the most of that period."

Nasim Ashraf
Pakistan is very proud of his achievements and he will be honoured by the PCB after the match.

Hanif Mohammad
We are proud of what he has done and I hope this is the start of of something great for him.

Ramiz Raja
He's been absolutely brilliant this year and has done it against good teams in India, England and the West Indies and has done it home and away. I don't think he has made any technical adjustments as such, but he is so sound mentally now. Religion has played an integral part in his growth not just as a cricketer but as a person. I used to doubt his ability to see Pakistan through in situations before but he has rescued Pakistan from precarious positions through the year. A superb achievement.
Osman Samiuddin is Pakistan editor of Cricinfo
link>> (http://uk.cricinfo.com/pakvwi/content/current/story/270423.html)

Hatebreed

November 30, 2006, 05:40 AM

Congrats to Mohammad Yousuf for this magnificent accomplishment. He's an elegant batsman and I'm sure he will mark his name as one of the greatest ever.

Miraz

November 30, 2006, 05:43 AM

Mohammad Yousuf is in untouchable form after his conversion.

According to him, Islam gave him peace and discipline and more concentration for cricket. :)

Simply outstanding performance. A feat that would be very hard to break again... it tooks 30 years to break the first one...

Goes to show how maturity, determination and dedication can take you places...
offcourse talent, skills and hard work comes along the way..

Simply a legendary performance by Yousuf.

akabir77

November 30, 2006, 10:51 AM

So is he going to be knighted too so that he can be called Sir or its against his religion or only christans can get the knight hood?

Protic

November 30, 2006, 01:37 PM

Islam surely gave Yousuf a boost.. WOW
Congratulations!

Zobair

November 30, 2006, 01:51 PM

Toggled between the BD-Zim match and Pak-WI match, one on the comp one on TV! MoYo looked like he was batting on a different pitch from the rest of the batsmen, both teams included! Red hot form! A very elegant batsman. Something tells me he will go on and on and on.

Sovik

November 30, 2006, 02:34 PM

congratulation to yousuf

Xavier

November 30, 2006, 02:48 PM

Mohammad Yousuf is in untouchable form after his conversion.

According to him, Islam gave him peace and discipline and more concentration for cricket. :)

I don't care much about religion but it's a fact that since he converted from christian to muslim his average has been around 90!

Bancan

November 30, 2006, 06:06 PM

i read some where i think in cricinfo that he converted in 2002 but didnt come out till last year. is it true?

thebest

November 30, 2006, 06:32 PM

So is he going to be knighted too so that he can be called Sir or its against his religion or only christans can get the knight hood?
he can be knighted but can not use the title Sir. Because Queen of England is not the head of state of Pakistan. Only people of those commonwealth country, who is ruled by King/queen of England (Like Aus, NZ, Canada) can be knighted and use sir as prefix. As far as I remember Gavasker as also been knighted

gravitY

November 30, 2006, 07:34 PM

I don't really care much about other teams other than BD, although I follow the final scorecard everyday.

But I'd been following Mohammad Yousuf's innings lately and amazed by the way he's been batting and breaking all records to take himself to a greater heights. I was expecting him break this record, and one thing to notice is his avg this year is almost 100!!! This is quite a feat. Congrats Yousuf.

Kabir

December 1, 2006, 12:04 AM

Seriously, he's been great ever since I saw him first. Classy, consistant, and entertaining. Congrats Yousuf.

Whatever it is, amar bou is very happy...they've got the same nationality :)

Omio

December 1, 2006, 07:03 AM

Yousuf is best batsman for pak,
if he is not in team pak will b struggling like india..

nasifkhan

December 1, 2006, 08:40 AM

beta pagol hoye gesay....

Kabir

December 1, 2006, 10:08 AM

Yousuf is best batsman for pak,
if he is not in team pak will b struggling like india..

Aray omio bhai...I'm surprised you forgot our Inzy!

akabir77

December 1, 2006, 11:00 AM

he can be knighted but can not use the title Sir. Because Queen of England is not the head of state of Pakistan. Only people of those commonwealth country, who is ruled by King/queen of England (Like Aus, NZ, Canada) can be knighted and use sir as prefix. As far as I remember Gavasker as also been knighted

Thanks for the info. So anyone from USA or Bangaldesh cannot get the SIR thing..OK

How about then giving him that Sha bhadur or somthing that out sub content kings had... Just a thought. We should start that to give these title to all sub continet people who where ruled by Babar...may be not